Clinton imposed economic sanctions on Iran, which squelched a deal Conoco, then headed by Dick Cheney, had in its pipeline. Preparing for the Olympics to be held in Atlanta in 1996, Clarke convened several meetings to investigate security issues: In one, Clarke asks an FAA official, who observes that the core of their system of defense depended on individual planes to broadcast their locations. In the aftermath of the Atlanta bomb, the FBI thought Richard Jewell--a private security guard who in actuality had located the bomb and moved away many potential victims--had planted the bomb as a publicity ploy: the actual bomber, Eric Rudolph, committed several other crimes and was finally arrested by local police in 2003.

Those working on counterterrorism were cobbled from different offices: the FBI, CIA, Secret Service, NSA, Customs, Immigration, Diplomatic Security, Coast Guard, and the DOD. In the 1990s, there were more U.S. Navy...